Revan's Galactic Acquistions
by R-I-C-A-R-D
Summary: Sequel to Casino at the Edge of the Galaxy. Revan & Co return to Telos and after some housecleaning, Revan begins his business activities on Citadel Station. But the unexpected return of an old companion threatens to end everything.
1. Not Supported by Facts

Author's note: Although making Carth into a slightly homicidal maniac is a bit out of character for him, when I was writing his dialogue, it just seemed right, so I went with it.

1. Not Supported by Facts

The _Ebon Hawk_, the former and once more conveyance of the once Dark Lord of the Sith turned saviour of the galaxy turned businessman belted silently through hyperspace. Revan sat motionlessly in a force cage inside the ship's cargo hold, meditating. His recent return from the great beyond outside the known galaxy wasn't yet common knowledge. Indeed, only his fellow passengers on board the ship knew he was even still alive.

He intended to keep it that way. Across from Revan, a gaping tear in the hull of the ship had been temporarily patched with the 'help' of the unfortunate astromech droid, T3-M4. He hadn't been happy to have been jammed in there following the ship's crash landing on Malachor V and he still wasn't happy. T3 emitted a series of beeps that, roughly translated, amounted to, "When I get out of here, I'll ram my shock arm up Atton's..."

Revan's eyes opened as the sound of booted feet on deck plating reached him. The Exile, Ilona stood in the doorway looking at the figure in the force cage.

"What are you doing in there?" she asked as though afraid of hearing the answer.

Revan turned his dark eyes to her green ones and replied, "I like it in here. It's private."

"Right, whatever. Atton says we're a couple of minutes out from Telos." At this point T3 gave rise to a shrill outburst of droid-speak.

"Look, T3, we've been through this before. Many times," the Exile explained, "You are not going to ram your shock arm up Atton's rear and end see how far it goes. End of story."

"Beep, bleep, boop," T3 protested.

Ilona sighed heavily, "I suppose 'accidentally' shoving him down the loading ramp is OK."

From the cockpit, Atton called out, "If that little junkpile on wheels comes anywhere near me, I'll tell HK to blast him."

"Statement: Meatbag, I would be more likely to blast you. At least the droid has some use around here," HK replied from his corner of the cargo hold.

"WILL ALL OF YOU JUST SHUT UP?!" Ilona yelled. "Eeeeee."

Revan looked at her. "You really oughta learn to relax, sweetheart. Just chill."

"Do NOT tell ME to chill," Ilona snapped. "And another thing, I am not your 'sweetheart.' Ever since you came on board, all you've done is sit and meditate and not lift a finger to help. Well let me tell you something for free, 'sweetheart' the free ride ends now!"

Revan smiled wolfishly. "As I recall, darlin' this is my ship. I make the rules, and if I decide to sit around doing nothing then that's what's gonna happen. Savvy?"

Being reminded of the change of the _Hawk's_ ownership caused an unhealthy-looking red flush to creep up Ilona's face. Pazaak, she thought. How could she have been stupid enough to gamble her ship, her _ship_ on a game of cards? And then _lose_ on top of that? The mere thought of it caused the flush to deepen, almost matching the colour of her hair.

Revan eyed Ilona curiously; he could see a vein in her forehead pulsing rapidly. That much blood pressure probably wasn't a good thing, he thought.

After observing the rise and rise of her blood pressure, Revan decided to relent a bit. After all, he didn't want her dropping dead on him. Aside from the snappishness which he suspected was mostly hormonal, she was actually a pretty cool chick. At least she didn't go on at him about the dark side like Bastila had. He had been the Dark Lord of the Sith after all. He could probably lecture entire academies about the perils of the dark side.

"All right. Calm down. I promise to help out a bit OK?" Revan stood and shut down the force cage. He stepped over to where Ilona stood, still in the door way and placed his hands on her shoulders and looked into her eyes. They were a deep green and with flecks of hazel. A guy could lose himself in there he thought and shook himself. Where had _that_ come from? As much as he liked Ilona and as much as he could watch her swish around the ship all day, and did, he wasn't about to go all ga-ga over her. Let Atton and what's his name, Mical go all dreamy over her.

"We happy?" Revan finally asked as the hands-on-shoulders and looking into each other's eyes thing seemed to have ended.

"We happy. For now. Anyway, I came to tell you that the Telos authorities are going to want a full report of events at Malachor. I don't know what to tell them."  
Revan shrugged and walked towards the front of the ship, "The truth." Then he looked back, "Except for the part about finding me and all that. If the Republic finds out I'm back.."

At that point the humming of a repulsor lift became audible has the droid G0-T0 floated in from whatever dark corner it had hidden itself. A metallic sounding voice, kinda like Malak's had been post-jaw severing issued from a speaker set into its spherical shape.

Ilona cursed and muttered, "Weren't you killed when we made Malachor go bye-bye?"

G0-T0 turned his optical receptors onto the Exile and replied, "A common misconception not supported by facts. Did you really think I would risk travelling the surface of Malachor V without leaving behind a replacement chassis with my personality uploaded to it?"

G0-T0 then dismissed Ilona's presence and turned to Revan, saying, "The Senate must be informed of your presence in Republic space so that you may serve as a rallying figure for the Republic."

"Uh...huh," Revan said. "And what makes you think I _want_ to be a rallying figure? The Republic has gotten by just fine without me these last five years."  
"Actually, you and Malak really did a number on Republic resources back in the day. You shoulda seen the post battle reports that came out of Telos...I'm friggin' impressed," Ilona said.

"Yeah, about Telos...I can't claim credit for that. That was _after_ Malak tried to kill me, the rotten bastard. Well I showed him, didn't I? hehe." Revan smiled as he remembered that final battle aboard the Star Forge. Him and Malak, leaning into each other, lightsabers locked and crackling. Malak doing his whole, "You cannot defeat me! I am the Master." bit and so on and so forth. Then the look of suprise as Revan pulled a little sneaky pistol from inside his robes and shot Malak between the eyes.

"If I may continue," G0-T0 broke in.

"What?!" snapped Ilona and Revan at the same time.

"As I was saying, the Republic is really quite fragile right now and I must insist that the Senate learn of your presence here."

Revan looked at HK-47 from the corner of his eye and back at the floating sphere in front of him, "Of course, G0-T0," he said in the soothing voice he had used whilst torturing pisioners, "We'll do everything you say,"

"Excellent," G0-T0 floated away.


	2. Admiral Crazy

2. Admiral Crazy

Revan removed a datapad from his belt and thumbed on the voice recorder. "Note to self: have HK terminate that floating target drone."

"What are you planning?" Ilona asked as the entered the cockpit. Mical turned to stare dreamily at her as she passed.

"That guy is really beginning to irritate me," Ilona fumed. "I get that he has a thing for me. Not to blow smoke up anyone's ass but I am kinda hot, right?"  
"Oh yeah..." Atton answered then flinched as Ilona slapped the back of his head, "Ow!"

"Where was I? Oh yeah. So I'm kinda hot right? So I just wish he'd quit jerking around and just make a move on me. He'd try it on, I'd deck him, he'd laugh it off and the whole 'sexual tension' thing would just go away. But no, he has to stare at me where ever I go."

"Well you are kinda intimidating," Atton pointed out, somewhat appalled that he was taking Mical's side on this.

Revan pulled his datapad again and whispered into it, "Make what's his name disappear."

Inside the cockpit, the swirling blue swirliness that was hyperspace broke up into a dazzling array of stars as the _Ebon Hawk_ exited hyperspace over Telos. A rather large Republic fleet, still on station after the recent Sith battle over the planet filled the sky.

Revan turned and glared at the crew of the _Hawk_ who had assembled behind him in the cockpit. "Alright, which one you nerf-herders alerted the fleet?"  
"Chill out," Ilona smirked, "They've been here a while."  
"Oh."

"Wow, quite a lightshow," commented Mira as she pointed out the running lights of the various ships.

Visas spoke up then, "Through the Force one can see the spreading glow of life upon the surface of Telos, past the ships. It is a...beautiful thing to see." Revan glanced back at the Miraluka woman and thought, not for the first time, _what a hottie._ That whole veil thing and the way she moved with such grace. And she didn't seem to have many qualms about the use of lethal force when required, either.

A crackle of static came from the comm system and a familiar voice began speaking.  
"This is Admiral Carth Onasi of the Republic cruiser _Sojourn. Ebon Hawk_, you are ordered to dock with us and report for immediate debriefing."

Revan cursed, "Onasi? Ah crap. I'm back in Republic space not five minutes and already I have that guy riding my ass." He looked around to see everybody staring at him open mouthed. "Not riding my ass as in _riding my ass!_ Come on! I like girls!" The crew stared at him even more and Mical laid a hand on his lightsaber and moved to place himself protectively in front of Mira. She was really too young to be hearing this.

Mira slammed an elbow into his stomach. Mical fell over backwards.

Revan wondered how things on the ship had gotten so weird so quickly. "By 'girls' I mean women of legal age who are consenting. OK? Can we get on with things now?"

"I dunno, Revan," Mira smiled salaciously, "I think we could all hear about how the great Lord Revan got his ass ridden by Admiral Onasi..." Mical groaned and climbed to his feet. "What was that about Admiral Onasi's ass?"

Nobody answered him.

Bao-Dur spoke up from the rear of the group. "I think somebody should answer the comm; the Admiral sounds a little upset."

"THIS IS ADMIRAL ONASI OF THE FREAKING CRUISER SOJOURN! SOMEBODY HAD BETTER ANSWER MY HAIL OR BY THE FORCE I'LL BLOW THAT FLOATING JUNKPILE OUT OF THE SKY!"

Revan, glad that the focus was no longer on him, said, "Now do you believe that the great Admiral is just a bit nuts?"

Atton opened a commline to the _Sojourn_ and replied in the most placating voice he could muster, the voice he used when talking down a group of debt collectors who were intent on breaking his kneecaps. "This is the _Ebon Hawk_, Admiral. We apologise for the delay in responding to you. We had a...situation that needed to be fixed."

"That's...that's quite all right. I'm just a little stressed at the moment. Seeing another Sith fleet over Telos just brought back memories," Carth replied, then apparently addressing somebody on the _Sojourn _he screamed, "And where are my frigging tea and biscuits? I ordered afternoon tea a bloody hour ago!"

The_ Ebon Hawk's_ crew shuffled around the cockpit nervously. They really did not want to be in a confined space with a man who had obvious anger issues. "Uh, I'm gonna go...polish my guns," Mira said and hustled off. "Yes, I have work to do in the medlab," Mical said and also departed.  
Mandalore, who had been silent the entire trip, spoke up, "You Republic people are all the same. That man is more in touch with his true self than anybody I've served with in a long time. It'll be good to see him again."  
Atton turned around in his chair and asked, "How do you know Onasi?"  
"Oh, before he was Mandalore, he was a merc who was part of my little group way back when," Revan said, airily waving a hand.

"Well, anyway, Admiral Crazy is beaming us docking clearance. I'm taking her in," Atton worked the controls and soon the docking bay of the _Sojourn_ gaped before them like the jaws of a rancor. Nice bit of imagery, that Revan told himself. "I'm going back to my force cage. Ilona I want you to handle Onasi. Take Bao-Dur so he can explain the whole 'mass-shadow' whatsit thingie."

"And while I'm getting my head chewed off you'll be doing what?" Ilona demanded.

"Planning a series of business acquistions."


	3. Improper Protocols

3. Improper Protocols

In the Admiral's stateroom aboard the _Sojourn,_ Ilona, Bao-Dur and Mandalore explained how they had defeated Darth Traya and activated the mass-shadow generator that had destroyed Malachor V for a second time and ended the Sith threat to the Republic. Carth, dressed in his customary brown leather flight jacket unholstered one of his pistols and began idly twirling it around his index finger. Ilona and Bao-Dur went still as statues. Mandalore smiled under his helmet. The pistol-twirling was an old habit of Onasi's and used to drive Bastila absolutely nuts. Something about improper weapons-handling protocols.

Abrubtly, Carth slammed the weapon down on the table of his stateroom. Ilona and Bao-Dur jumped. "Very well. Did you happen to find any trace of Revan while you were on the Outer Rim?" he asked.

Ilona briefly considered telling the truth then decided the fall out from such a meeting would likely be fatal for all concerned. Instead she stared at a spot over the Admiral's left shoulder and lied through her teeth. "No sign at all, Admiral Onasi. It's like he just disappeared. I...realise how important it is for you to find him," she finished and risked a glance at Carth's face.

"Too bad," Carth answered, "The bastard still owes me a hundred and fifty credits."

"All this time you've wanted to see Revan...because he owes you money?" Bao-Dur said then grunted as Ilona kicked him under the table.

Carth removed a small dagger from his belt and began picking his teeth with it. "So now that you're back in Republic space, what do you intend to do?"

This was a good question and until Revan had usurped her position, one Ilona knew the answer to. She _had_ intended to book passage on a properly good pleasure cruiser and just swan around like a spoiled princess for five or six months. No worries, no hassles. Just her and as many cabin-boys as she could seduce. Ilona suppressed a grin. Now that Revan was back, she didn't know what was going on. All she knew was that Revan was planning to open a chain of casinos in Republic space and end up buying Nar Shadda from the Hutts. When Ilona had pointed out that you can't actually buy a planet, Revan had answered that, with enough credits, one could buy anything and even the Hutts had their price.

Bao-Dur spoke up, "With the General's permission I'd like to return to Telos to assist the Ithorians in restoring the planet. And Atton said something about the Nar Shaddaa Red Sector and an orgy involving Twi'lek dancing girls."

At the word 'orgy' Carth's eyes lit up. "I'll have to have a little chat with Atton later on."

"Uh...yeah," Ilona answered. "Bao-Dur, you can go ahead and leave for Telos as soon as we're done here. With the Admiral's permission of course."  
"What? Oh yeah, sure," said Onasi who was unbuckling his pants. "I've got uh...things to take care of in the uh..refresher. So if you don't mind?"

Ilona and Bao-Dur practically fell over each other as they left the Admiral's stateroom, dragging Mandalore with them.


	4. Teminated

4. Terminated

Back on board the _Ebon Hawk_, Revan called a meeting of the crew. Revan, dressed in his favourite dark robes began by saying, "It is with great sadness that I must tell you that Bao-Dur will be leaving us to assist the Ithorians on Telos." A spontaneous cheer went up and Bao-Dur blushed.

"Mandalore has informed me that he wishes to return to Dxun to rebuild the Mandalorians and begin a renewed assault on the Republic," Everybody turned to stare at the helmeted warrior.

"He's joking about the assault," Mandalore said. Damn, but he'd miss Revan's perverted sense of humour.

G0-T0 interjected, "As soon as possible we should leave for Coruscant and inform the Senate of Revan's return."

Revan turned to HK-47.

"Query: Is there somebody that you need killed, Master?" HK didn't hold out much hope that the answer to his question would be in the affirmative. By his calculation, he had asked the question 546 times since his reactivation and each time, his meatbag masters had answered in the negative. It was really quite disappointing. Why, in the old days, Revan was telling him to assassinate meatbags left, right and centre. Such happy days.

Revan replied, "Yes."

A collective gasp went up from the group and HK's optical receptors glowed a bright red. An unfamiliar feeling grew within his behaviour core. He believed that meatbags called it 'joy'

Revan continued, "HK, please take G0-T0 outside and shoot him, will you?"  
"Answer: it will be a great pleasure, Master."  
G0-T0's voicebox sputtered, "You...you cannot do this! I am needed to stabilise the galaxy! Without me you are all doomed, do you understand?"

HK reached out a rusty coloured arm and, grabbing G0-T0 by one of his anntennae, hauled him into the docking bay of the _Sojourn _where the _Hawk _was secured. G0-T0's protests echoed through the ship. Then the unmistakeable sound of a Mandalorian heavy repeater could be heard.

"Hey, that was my gun he was using," Mandalore said. "Nice choice."

HK soon returned, his feet making metallic clanking noises on the decking. "Statement: target terminated, Master."

"Good, stand down HK."

"Resignation: Yes, Master. But if you should change your mind, I am ready to serve." HK held the massive weapon at port arms and began scanning the room for threats.

Revan turned to Mical. Mical looked back at him with those big blue eyes and stared at Revan like a kath hound pup at its mother. "Mical, I understand you have an interest in restoring the Jedi archives on Telos and Dantooine?"

"Indeed," Mical began and spent the next twenty minutes lecturing the crew on the importance of why the teachings of the Jedi should be preserved so that even if the last of the Jedi should fall, their lessons would live on.

Exasperated, Revan glanced at Ilona then nodded in HK's direction. Ilona shook her head. Frig, Revan thought to himself. Eventually Mical ran out of words and Ilona offered him the chance to return to Telos and begin work collecting Atris' archives there. That had been a cracker of an idea, Revan thought to himself. He'd approached the Exile about the best way of removing Mical from the crew without having to shoot him in the head and throw him out the airlock. Ilona explained about Mical's passion for history.

"When we first met him, he was standing in the Jedi archives at the Enclave on Dantooine just staring into space."

"You think he'll accept us turfing him off the ship at Telos' polar region and leaving him there?"  
Ilona had answered, "Mical, bless him, if I told him slaughtering an orphanage full of small children would benefit the Jedi and Republic, well there'd be a massacre to rival what the Mandalorians did on Serrocco."

"Niiiice. I could have used more people like him back in the war," Revan had replied.

Now that Mical wholeheartedly accepted his new posting as Chief Archivist of Telos, Revan ticked off his name on the datapad. "Atton," Revan drawled lazily, "I understand that you're quite familiar with the ins and outs of organised crime on Nar Shadda?"  
"If by 'familiar' you mean that I owe credits to every crime boss between here and Sleyheyron then yes."

"Good. I want you to travel to Nar Shaddaa, hook up with any contacts you may have and put the word out that a certain Mister Anderson," Revan gestured to himself and continued, "wishes to purchase any and all real estate pertaining to gambling. Bonus points for anything involving Twi-lek dancing girls." Mira rolled her eyes. What was it with human males and female Twi'leks? She certainly didn't feel the same attraction when dealing with male Twi'leks.

"After I'm finished here on Telos I'll join you and we'll start making some real money."

"And what, pray tell will you be doing on Telos?" Ilona inquired.

"I plan to take over the cantina in the entertainment district of Citadel Station," Revan answered, naming the huge space station that orbited Telos. From there, the Ithorians monitored the restoration of Telos. Recently the station had been under the control of Czerka Corporation and the criminal organisation the Exchange. Ilona and her companions had broken the stranglehold of Czerka and the crime boss on Citadel and as far as she knew, the running of the Citadel's money-making assets had yet to be farmed out to anybody else. A perfect opportunity for Revan to step in and take over.


	5. An Expensive Prostitute

5. An Expensive Prostitute

Over the course of the next few days, shuttles left the _Sojourn_ carrying Atton to Nar Shaddaa, Bao-Dur and Mical to Telos and Mandalore back to Dxun. HK-47 had grudgingly relinquished the Manadalorian heavy repeater he'd used to terminate G0-T0 but only because Mandalore promised to bring him back something that was even more ludicrously powerful. HK sincerely hoped it was a portable tactical nuclear device.

The _Sojourn_'s technical crew had also been hard at work, repairing the hull of the _Ebon Hawk_ and finally freeing T3-M4. The little droid only wished they had done that while Atton was still on board. But he could wait. Finally free of the clutches of the slightly homicidal Admiral Onasi, Revan, Ilona and the remaining crew departed the _Sojourn_ and flew to Citadel Station. Ilona would be tied up for several days attending various functions to celebrate the defeat of the Sith and seriously considered spacing herself to avoid the hassle of it all.

"Can you believe I actually have to wear a formal gown?" She complained to Revan. "I'm an exile ex-Jedi, if I'm going to wear anything, it'll be my robes. They were good enough while I was saving everybody's asses from the Sith but they aren't good enough now, are they?"

Mira looked up from reloading her wrist mounted grenade launcher, "I think that gown looks pretty on you," she said. "Especially like the off the shoulders style."

Ilona looked at herself in the mirror of the apartment they had been given whilst on-station. Her auburn hair, worn normally in a rough ponytail had been shampooed, conditioned, blow-waved and Force knew what else and now fell in shining waves down her back. Her green eyes had been accented with some bizarre substance Mira said was called 'eye shadow.'

"I look like an expensive prostitute!"

"I think that's kinda the point, sweetness," Revan put in from where he was lounging by the bar.

Ilona spun around, picked up the nearest object, which turned out to be an expensive vase of heavy crystal and hurled it at Revan's head. He was almost quick enough to avoid it. Almost but not quite. The gash to his scalp required sixteen stitches. After that Revan kept his thoughts on her attire to himself.

Later on, Revan and Mira sat at a bar in the entertainment section of the station and observed the clientele. The place a was a dive and the customers reflected it. In one corner, a pair of Gamorreans were shaking down a Sullustan for credits. The Sullustan's cries for mercy went unheard by the other patrons. Mira finally got up from her seat, stepped over to the two pig-like creatures and stunned one, then the other with her Bothan stun-stick. The Sullustan gibbered his thanks and collapsed with relief. "You seriously cannot be considering _buying _ this dump," Mira fumed as she returned to her seat. She ducked as a human flew over the bar and smashed up against the bottles of alcohol. The man got up, pulled a shard of glass from his face and blasted his attacker with a hold-out pistol.

"This place is even more lawless than...I'm actually lost for words," Mira went on.

"I know," Revan nodded, "It's great isn't it?" Revan gestured to the bartender who was cheerfully ignorant of the mayhem around her and asked, "How can I get an appointment with the owner of this fine establishment?"  
The bartender, a tall slender woman with eyebrow piercings and hair dyed purple said, "You takin' the piss?" Revan assured her that he was not, in point of fact, taking the piss. "Owner's over there," she pointed a green skinned Twi-lek male who appeared to be accepting bets on how long it would be before the next brawl erupted. Revan left the bar and sighing heavily, Mira went after him. Bodyguard duty sucked, she thought. Why Revan couldn't take HK along she didn't know. And it wasn't as if Revan couldn't look after himself. Mira thought he just liked to be seen with a young woman capable of killing everybody in the entire cantina single handed.

"Greetings, fellow sentient," Revan began cheerfully.

"Whatever you're selling, the answer is no," the Twi'lek replied in Basic without even looking up.

"Okie-dokie. What if I told you I was prepared to buy this place and pay twice what it's worth and I had the credits right here to make it happen?"  
"Twice as much?!" Mira protested.

"Darlin' it's the only way to be taken seriously," Revan gasped as Mira punched him the back.

"Call me 'darlin' again and you'll be shopping for a new set of kidneys."

The Twi'lek finally replied, "Twice as much, you say? And what' s the catch?"

"No catch, I think this place has great potential."

The Twi'lek burst out laughing, his lekku thrashing about as he slapped his hands on the table. Revan lifted a briefcase from the floor, opened it to reveal a great number of credits and shoved it under the Twi'lek's face. He sobered up immediately. "My friend, I believe we can do business, you and I."

Mira and Revan returned to their apartment reeking of alcohol and death-stick smoke tired but happy. Once the credits had been exchanged and Revan had the deed in hand, he immediately turfed everybody out, assuring the bartender who was named Aimee that she still had a job and called in some people to begin renovating the place. Even as they left, the sounds of power tools could be heard.

Ilona sat on the bed, massaging her ankles. After a night on six-inch spike heels, her legs absolutely screamed for relief. Revan considered offering to massage her feet then decided it wasn't worth the risk to his health. Instead he entered the refresher station and started filling the tub with hot water. Ilona couldn't possibly refuse a hot bath, could she? He returned to see Mira massaging Ilona's feet while Ilona herself appeared to have passed out on the bed. "Oh so, it's alright for _you_ to massage her feet but not me?"  
Her eyes still closed, Ilona answered, "That's because I can trust her not to try to seduce me while she's at it, sweetie," Revan opened his mouth to protest but she cut him off saying, "Don't tell me it hasn't occurred to you to try."

Revan sniffed and answered, "There's a bath running. Unless you consider that 'seduction.'"

Ilona sat up. "That's unexpectedly sweet of you. I didn't know you had it in you."

"Yeah well, don't get used to it."


	6. Rolling in Credits

6. Rolling in Credits

The next day saw the group meeting with the Telosian council nominally responsible for running Citadel Station. That is when Czerka, the Exchange, smugglers and gun runners weren't pulling the rug out from under them. Needless to say, it had been a long time since the Citadel administrators had had to actually _administrate_. Sure, they made a song and dance about stamping out the crime but in reality, the Council had always liked to take a 'hands off' approach. Just so long as the credits came in, they didn't much care how they came in. Or where from.

Revan stood in the centre of the council boardroom dressed in a suit. He resisted the urge to loosen the tie although it threatened to strangle him. He shouldn't have agreed to let Ilona put it on him. Revan spoke for about fifteen minutes, laying out his plans to buy up the entertainment sector of Citadel Station, providing security and job opportunities for the many people on the station and funnelling a good portion of the profits into the restoration project. The sole Ithorian on the council nodded enthusiastically.

"And how can we be assured that you have the credits to back up your words?" inquired a grey-haired woman who had been eyeing Revan as though wondering what he looked like naked. Revan gulped. Visas handed him the briefcase full of credits. The deal was sealed in under two minutes.

As the group departed the council chambers, amid the sounds of people rolling in credits, they encountered a large number of extremely pissed off looking people. Judging by the looks of them, they appeared to be Exchange.

"I think they're with the Exchange," Mira pointed out helpfully.

"Yes, I think I can see that, thanks," Revan sighed. He turned to Ilona, "I thought you said you kicked the Exchange off the station?"  
"What can I say? They're like weeds. Pull a bunch out, another bunch pop up," Ilona shrugged and pulled her pair of lightsabers.

"We are most displeased at your meddling in our affairs," the man at the centre of the group said in what he thought was a threatenting tone. Instead it made him sound like he had a bad cough.

"Y'know, some cough medicine would help with that," Ilona said. Behind her, Mira chuckled.

"You make jokes,.yes? We are not amused. You want to make business dealings here, you make them with us." said another.

"Yeah, I was kinda hoping to avoid that. Last time I checked, business with you lot usually involve a lot of broken kneecaps, random beatings and such. Can't say it does much for me," Revan turned to Ilona, hand held palm up and said, "Lighsaber." He began to regret leaving his one weapon back at one of his casinos, as a museum piece.

"Oh so _now_ you want to start carrying a weapon?" Ilona handed one of the sabers over.

"_Snowflake?"_ Revan blinked at the name engraved in the handle of the weapon. Then he shrugged and activated it. A brilliant green-white beam of energy crackled to life. The battle was over very quickly.

Revan surveyed the pile of body parts and shook his head. "Idiots." Ilona held out her hand for her weapon. Revan handed it back, asking, "You call your lightsaber Snowflake?"  
"What you don't give yours names?"  
"Well yeah. But I call mine the Widowmaker," Revan answered.

"Oh by the Force," Mira rolled her eyes. She placed a hand over her own lightsaber, hiding the words, "Le petite morte" - the little death.

Visas spoke quietly and Revan jumped. He'd forgotten she was there, "I call mine 'the spirit of the Miraluka'"  
"Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue," Mira pointed out.

"In the Miraluka language it is pronounced," and Visas emitted a sound like a kath hound being strangled.

"OK, then," Revan said. "I gotta get outta this suit. The tie's killing me."  
"I know," Ilona smirked


	7. Bastila Flips Out

7. Bastila Flips Out

Three standard months after arriving on Telos, Revan's business acquistions were performing far better than expected. The restoration effort, nearly hamstrung by Czerka was actually ahead of schedule as the funds promised by Revan began pouring in.

Revan sat at his desk in his office looking over the figures. Business was doing very nicely, thank you for asking. The renovated cantina, renamed Ilona's in honour of the Exile's triumph over the Sith had become a hugely popular haunt for both those working the restoration project but also spacers who came through on their way elsewhere. A casino named after Visas had the dubious distinction of causing more bankruptcies than any other establishment, a fact that mortified Visas but secretly pleased Revan. He promised to lay aside some credits to open gambling addiction helplines.

Mira had been installed as his head of security. Already 93 people had been busted trying to scam the various games on offer. HK-47 ably served as Mira's backup on occasions when drunk patrons tried to resist her efforts to remove them from the premises. Seventeen separate incidences of serious assault had been logged with the Telos Security Force since HK had begun his duties. Not surprisingly, the TSF didn't seem inclined to press the issue.

Unbenknownst to any of them however, an extremely angry fly was about to land in the ointment. A small shuttle, bearing the symbol of the Jedi Order arrived from Dantooine. The pilot of the ship was following up disturbing rumours relating to recent business activites on Citadel Station. Bastila Shan, dressed in the customary brown robes of the Order emerged from her shuttle in the docking bay and headed past Ilona's on her way to see the Telosian Council to address these rumours.

Mira, in the process of throwing out a drunk and disorderly Rodian saw the young Jedi as she waked past and immediately alerted Revan.

"Rev, get down here, we got a situation."

"Define 'situation,'" Revan answered. Mira gritted her teeth and replied, "I just saw your old Jedi friend," Revan cut her off before she could continue.

"Jolee?" he said hopefully. He quite liked the old coot.

"Uh no. Somebody considerably younger and better looking," Mira said, "Female, too."  
"Oh hell no..." Revan gasped.

"Oh hell yes."

In his office, Revan quickly began packing away as much as he could as fast as he could. He put in a call to the docking bay to order T3 to prep the ship for launch. If that crazy bitch caught up with him... A cold feeling of dread descended on him and he realised he was too late.

Bastila stormed into the office, fury etched on her otherwise quite lovely face. Her blue eyes flared like a lightsaber and tears of rage rolled down her face.

"You son of a whore!" she shouted as she finally locked eyes wtih Revan. She turned and kicked over a coffee table. It flew across the room and smashed into a set of vases. Revan cringed; he really liked those vases. Bastila turned to him again. Five years it had been. He had told her he loved her but then he just disappeared. She hadn't taken it well at all.

"Bastila, honey," Revan began, hands upraised. He really hoped Ilona would be back from the merchant quarter soon. She'd picked a really bad time to go food shopping.

"Don't 'honey' me! I want to know where you've been all this time! I thought you were dead! That at least would have explained why you never contacted me..." Bastila had a good head of steam built up and continued without pausing for breath for several more minutes. Revan slumped back into his chair. It was like the Jedi Civil War all over again. He makes one tiny mistake, and she's all over him a Hutt at an all you can eat buffet.

"What's going on in here?" Ilona called out as she entered the office, Mira at her back. "Bastila?" she said, in shock. "What are _you_ doing here?"  
Bastila whirled around and unclipped the double-bladed lightsaber from her belt, "Wouldn't you like to know, you little whore!" Ilona shrugged. She'd been called worse things.

"Hey, don't call her that," Revan broke in. Bastila spun to face him, her mouth working furiously. "Oh I see, I see quite clearly. I was never good enough for you but you seem perfectly fine gadding about with this...this..." Bastila seemed lost for words.

"Slut?" Mira suggested. Ilona turned around and said, "Could you maybe not open your mouth for change?"

Mira shrugged and left. Ilona placed herself between Revan and Bastila. The younger woman had clearly lost control of her emotions. A wrong word now would send her over the edge. It should have come at no surprise that Revan provided the wrong word. "She may be a slut but she's more dear to me than..."  
Ilona's heart sped up with a jolt. All this time the two of them had traded barbs and flirtations but she never once believed that Revan actually felt more than friendship towards her. "Oh Revan!" she gasped like a teenage girl. Bastila flipped out. "Dear to you? Oh Revan, I was prepared to sacrifice _everything_ for you! And now you tell me...she's _dear_ to you?" An extremely disturbing light arose behind Bastila's eyes. Revan had seen it often enough in himself as the Dark Lord. If Bastila hadn't quite made the jump from staunch defender of the light to servant of the dark, she was pretty damn close.

And he was _still _without a weapon. "Um, Ilona, honey? Lightsaber?" Ilona rolled her eyes. _Here we go again_.

The End.


End file.
